This invention relates to an elastomeric sealing plug for a vehicle body and more particularly to an elongated slot-shaped sealing plug adapted for ready assembly in a conforming opening in a vehicle body panel by means of a cooperating hand installation tool.
The prior art is replete with various sealing plug arrangements. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,927, issued Aug. 23, 1983 to Yaotani et al., for example, discloses a snap-on plug. In one form of the Yaotani patent a socket wrench is used to insert a plug into a complementary circular aperture by applying a force first on a higher part of a shoulder and then on a lower part of the same.
The U. S. Pat. No. 4,487,998 issued Dec. 11, 1984 to Pegram discloses a plug-like releasable grommet formed of resilient material. The Pegram grommet has a laterally extending mounting flange axially spaced form a laterally extending detent shoulder for securing the grommet in a panel aperture received between the mounting flange and detent shoulder. An axially extending socket adjacent the detent shoulder is provided for receipt of a lever-form release tool such as a screwdriver between a cable anchored by the grommet and the detent shoulder facilitating ready release from the panel.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,434 issued Feb. 3, 1987 to Johnson et al. discloses a plug for sealing holes. The Johnson patented plug has an elastomeric tapered body member of circular or rectangular cross-section, formed of a plurality of integral tapered portions of successively reduced taper.